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Pharmacy Department, Maudsley Hospital, London
Pharmacy Department, Maudsley Hospital, and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kings College, London, UK
Correspondence: David Taylor, Pharmacy Department, Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ, UK. Email: David.Taylor{at}slam.nhs.uk
None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.
Ethnicity may influence treatment decisions in mental disorders. We undertook a survey of the prescribing of antipsychotics for in-patients in three south London mental health trusts. A total of 255 patients (152 White, 103 Black) were included. Median dose of antipsychotic (% of licensed dose) was 58.3% for White and 50.0% for Black patients (adjusted effect size=0.14, 95% CI –0.34 to 0.63). High-dose antipsychotics were prescribed to 15.1% of White and 11.7% of Black patients (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=0.5, 95% CI 0.19–1.33), and antipsychotic polypharmacy was recorded for 25.7% and 31.1% respectively (adjusted OR=3.05, 95% CI 1.44–6.46). Prescribing quality was similar for Black and White patients.
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